Retro Engine

Sonic Mania is now older than a month. What was once a pipedream of a brand new Sonic developed by fans has finally happened. David The Lurker, Cinossu, Overlord, Bartman3010 and InstantSonic lend their voices to talk about the Mania and not-so Mania about Sonic’s return to 2D glory before the start of this year’s Sonic Amateur Games Expo and the Sonic Hacking Contest. Music composed by Tee Lopes. Expect spoilers in this one!

[The following is a guest post about the Sonic 3 Remastered campaign written by Stealth, who with Taxman made the Retro Engine versions of Sonic 1 and 2 which can currently be bought for iOS and Android. They had also made a proof-of-concept of Sonic 3 running in the engine on the iPhone. This was originally posted on Stealth’s own blog, so it’s written in a way you can expect from a post on a personal blog.]

Intro

Before I start, I’ll first say that I’m speaking as an individual, and not on behalf of any other party, team, business entity, etc. As such, I will speak only for and of myself, without regard to other parties who may want to remain uninvolved.

With the exception of the anniversary presentation from October, I’ve remained relatively silent on the subject of remastering Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Naturally, this is expected of me as someone who has already contracted with SEGA, would be a part of the Sonic 3 remastering project, and would potentially perform work under contract for SEGA again in the future, however, I no longer feel that it’s appropriate to maintain near-complete silence in contrast to my own personal feelings as an individual and as a fan of classic Sonic the Hedgehog.

Fans and Bringing Back Sonic 3

I’m writing this to openly demonstrate my support for the #BringBackSonic3 / #Sonic3Remastered initiative. The initiative has been in its infancy since shortly after the October presentation, but appears to finally be gaining traction. If you haven’t yet heard of it, check out the site for some additional info:

In short, this is a combined letter-writing and petition campaign to attempt to convince SEGA to contract and fund the completion and release of the existing Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) prototype discussed and displayed in the aforementioned presentation.

To be honest, I personally have no idea how effective either portion of this campaign will ultimately be regardless of the level of support it receives, but it seems as if they may be our last available recourse. If you expect there to be any chance of this project being realized, I’d suggest that you participate in both the letter-writing and petition campaigns and ask as many people as you can gather to do the same. Continue Reading

Amazon’s set top box pulled a SEGA Saturn by releasing at the same time as it’s announcement, not only acting as a direct competitor to other multimedia devices such as the Apple TV and the Roku, but also acting as a dedicated game console as well, sporting it’s Android based operating system sporting games like Minecraft – Pocket Edition, Telltale’s The Walking Dead and more. With an Android based system comes SEGA with a number of conversions of their Android based Sonic games. Check out after the break below to see the list of games from SEGA that became available at the launch of the system as well as their price and more on these ports.

Less than a week ago, Sonic 1 received a Taxman/Stealth makeover for mobile platforms. The updated port has already cracked the Top 10 Paid Apps list in the US for both Google Play and the iOS App Store at #2 and #8, respectively. As we covered earlier, there are a ton of bonus features that more than warrant its $2.99 price tag. We encourage you to purchase the app, which you can find in the links below. After the jump you will also find some screenshots showcasing some of the bonus features (slight spoilers).

Ever wondered when Taxman and Stealth’s Sonic 1 Retro Engine remaster would be made available? Next week? Next month?! Well, in fact it is actually hitting both the iOS and Android as soon as today or tomorrow depending on your region and platform. Most regions should be seeing the iOS port as soon as right now, or at least tomorrow. As for Android, according to Taxman on the Retro Forums he says, “Thursday 16th PST for Android, US & Canada so you’ll have to wait a bit longer sorry.”

Android Police reports that Taxman and Stealth’s remastering of Sonic the Hedgehog will be released on Android and presumably iOS as well later this month for $2.99. Those who have already bought Sonic 1 on iOS will get this release as a free update. The site also released some gameplay footage of the Android version, which confirms that this is indeed Sonic 1 in widescreen running nice and smooth.

Also it has shows that Sonic can indeed use the spindash in this new version. The music isn’t present in this video, presumably because they aren’t done making the tracks sound nicer yet. The menu isn’t present either, as they probably aren’t allowed to share the neat new features. Also no zone title cards for some reason.

UPDATE: Taxman has confirmed on our forums that he and Stealth are the ones behind this new version. He has also said that there’ll be the usual improvements and fan service like with his updated version of Sonic CD. So you can expect some good stuff from this.

Fresh from Game Developers Conference, Sega is dropping some hot news for mobile development. Namely the appearance of the original Sonic the Hedgehog on iOS and Android devices for $2.99. No release date has been revealed at this point, however it is going to be granted additional features. Not only will there be a rock solid framerate matching the widescreen display, you’re also getting Time Attack modes and a remastered soundtrack as well. Its possible that this could be rebuilt using the Retro engine as evidenced by this tweet from Taxman himself:

There are also rumblings that Sonic 2 may also see a similar re-release. In the meantime, Sega has also announced mobile editions of Puzzle Pirates, House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Files and Godsrule. Puzzle Pirates is set for release within Spring of this year, while the others are To Be Decided. Be sure to check out the gallery below for a first glimpse at each of these titles.

Sony’s official U.S. PlayStation blog revealed that Sonic CD boomed past the competition and was the top purchased digital game on the PlayStation Store for the last month of 2011. Given the cult classic status it has amongst Sonic fans, seeing it bust out the gate strong is always a pleasant sight, though its feeling of familiarity with small enhancements for this HD age to give it a breath of fresh air certainly left us smiling.

The other story is that it no doubt shows success for Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead’s Retro Engine, utilized to power the game and all its modifications, and more importantly sends a strong message to Sega that demand is out there and there is benefit to using the engine in not only new Sonic games, but various new titles in general given the engine’s versatility. Congratulations, Taxman!

Sony’s official U.S. PlayStation blog revealed that Sonic CD boomed past the competition and was the top purchased digital game on the PlayStation Store for the last month of 2011. Given the cult classic status it has amongst Sonic fans, seeing it bust out the gate strong is always a pleasant sight, though its feeling of familiarity with small enhancements for this HD age to give it a breath of fresh air certainly left us smiling.

The other story is that it no doubt shows success for Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead’s Retro Engine, utilized to power the game and all its modifications, and more importantly sends a strong message to Sega that demand is out there and there is benefit to using the engine in not only new Sonic games, but various new titles in general given the engine’s versatility. Congratulations, Taxman!

If you’ve not gone and purchased Sonic CD or spread the word to friends who enjoy a quirky platformer, what are you waiting for? We’ll even GIVE you a copy of Sonic CD on Steam if you have a nice tale on how you got someone to play Sonic CD!

Sony’s official U.S. PlayStation blog revealed that Sonic CD boomed past the competition and was the top purchased digital game on the PlayStation Store for the last month of 2011. Given the cult classic status it has amongst Sonic fans, seeing it bust out the gate strong is always a pleasant sight, though its feeling of familiarity with small enhancements for this HD age to give it a breath of fresh air certainly left us smiling.

The other story is that it no doubt shows success for Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead’s Retro Engine, utilized to power the game and all its modifications, and more importantly sends a strong message to Sega that demand is out there and there is benefit to using the engine in not only new Sonic games, but various new titles in general given the engine’s versatility. Congratulations, Taxman!

If you’ve not gone and purchased Sonic CD or spread the word to friends who enjoy a quirky platformer, what are you waiting for? We’ll even GIVE you a copy of Sonic CD on Steam if you have a nice tale on how you got someone to play Sonic CD!

Sony’s official U.S. PlayStation blog revealed that Sonic CD boomed past the competition and was the top purchased digital game on the PlayStation Store for the last month of 2011. Given the cult classic status it has amongst Sonic fans, seeing it bust out the gate strong is always a pleasant sight, though its feeling of familiarity with small enhancements for this HD age to give it a breath of fresh air certainly left us smiling.

The other story is that it no doubt shows success for Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead’s Retro Engine, utilized to power the game and all its modifications and more importantly sends a strong message to Sega that demand is out there and there is benefit to using the engine in not only new Sonic games, but various new titles in general given the engine’s versatility. Congratulations, Taxman!

If you’ve not gone and purchased Sonic CD or spread the word to friends who enjoy a quirky platformer, what are you waiting for? We’ll even GIVE you a copy of Sonic CD on Steam if you have a nice tale on how you got someone to play Sonic CD!